Conventional vs. Regenerative Business Structures

Farming and AgricultureFood SystemAlternative Trade

Oct 6

Part 1 in the Just Food System Series by Dana Geffner

Dana Geffner’s article Pathways to Creating a Just Food System unpacked various organizing efforts that small-scale farmers in majority countries, family farmers in minority countries, and farmworkers globally are doing to transform food systems. These tools drive a larger movement for justice and sustainability. Following up on that article is this four-part series focused on 1) conventional vs. regenerative business structures, 2) alternative business models that are building fair and equitable partnerships, 3) alternatives to conventional shopping, and 4) individual actions we can all take to help transform food systems.

Conventional vs. Regenerative Business Structures

Different alternative business models are paving the way to transform the food industry by building fair and equitable partnerships by prioritizing workers, small-scale farmers in the global majority, family farmers in the global minority, and farmworkers organizations, from manufacturers to retail grocery stores to daily farmers markets. The conventional business model extracts community and individual resources on every level—from people’s land to their dignity. Milton Friedman’s statement, “The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits,” speaks to the ethos of publicly traded corporations with shareholders rather than stakeholders in the driver’s seats. We must look at a company’s intentions by looking at how their bylaws talk about their decision-making policies. What drives them to make business decisions, is it profit or our society at-large? Without officially changing power dynamics in how business is operated, Friedman’s statement will always ring true.

Corporate executive salaries are offensively disproportionate to workers. Publicly traded companies are required by law to disclose the pay ratio between their executive officers and median employees. The AFL-CIO has an easy-to-use website to showcase these truly jaw-dropping pay ratios across industries. Their reporting in 2022 shows us that the average S&P 500 company’s CEO-to-worker pay ratio is 272-to-1, and these company’s CEO pay has increased by $5 million over the past decade, in 2022 CEOs received $16.7 million on average in total compensation¹. It is important to look at these pay ratios and consider the details behind them, keeping in mind that workers’ salaries have been stagnant. The federal minimum wage of $7.25 has not changed since 2009.

Here are a few examples of pay ratios of brands working in our food system, as reported by AFL-CIO in 2022²:

Coca-Cola: 1,883-to-1

McDonalds: 1,224-to-1

Walmart: 933-to-1

Aramark: 880-to-1

Target: 690-to-1

Kroger: 671-to-1

Pepsico Inc.: 543-to-1

Mondelez International, Inc.: 502-to-1

Many companies talk about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), producing annual reports that their PR firms push out to try to prove they are responsible and sustainable. At the same time, they are advocating for unjust food and trade policies, waging war against workers organizing, and spending millions to fight human rights lawsuits. Research has shown over and over again that in-house CSR programs and many certifications, such as BCorp and weak Fair Trade schemes, are not working to transform a broken food system.

To truly see any changes, we need to work on policy that does not allow exploitation in supply chains, and we also need to support businesses that build regenerative business practices into their bylaws. There are several different models that are inspirational and that can be replicated so we do not continue the status quo of extracting all the resources out of communities to line the pockets of the wealthiest people in the world.

Regenerative businesses: regenerative organic farming—what, why, how

The definition of regenerative businesses and farming practices is loosely defined. Many people have their own ideas of what constitutes both. In my opinion, when talking about a regenerative business structure within our food system it also incorporates regenerative organic farming practices. Regenerative businesses include fair and equitable practices in their bylaws, ones that prioritize people and the planet over profits and margins. It is a model that takes into consideration every stage of their social and economic impacts and is intentional about how they expand, understanding that growth limitations exist that could place harmful pressure on workers and the environment. And while this may sound like a tall order, if the intentions are built into their governance structure through their bylaws, and we can be transparent in the challenges and work through missteps, we can come out the other side with a world that regenerates rather than degenerates.

Regenerative organic farming

Regenerative organic farming is a holistic approach to agriculture that emphasizes the restoration of soil health, techniques taken from traditional knowledge of small-scale farmers around the world. Those techniques include conservation tillage, mulching, composting, cover cropping, crop rotation, and restorative livestock integration. In the face of extreme weather patterns such as drought and excessive and unpredictable levels of rainfall, these practices increase resiliency, improve production, and have the ability to sequester carbon. In 2014, the Rodale Institute put out their white paper Regenerative Organic Agriculture and Climate Change: A Down-to-Earth Solution to Global Warming which outlined the research they and others did on how certain farming techniques could help reverse climate change by sequestering carbon. Their statement, “With the use of cover crops, compost, crop rotation, and reduced tillage, we can actually sequester more carbon than is currently emitted, tipping the needle past 100% to reverse climate change” was exaggerated, but the importance of the research showed that while agriculture had played a major role in creating the climate emergency, it also could be seen as part of the solution in reversing it. There also needs to be much more discussion and support for farmers to implement these practices through funding, fair payments, and long-term commitments. You can read more about this in an article I wrote for Rodale Institute Regenerative: Fair for Farmers, Organic For You.

In part 2 of this series, I will share a few examples of programs, organizations, and business structures prioritizing the well-being of farmers, their communities, workers, and the environment through regenerative business practices, working to truly change power dynamics to transform food systems.

For over two decades, Dana Geffner has worked to raise awareness of a just food system that works in solidarity with small-scale farmers and artisans, protects worker’s rights and encourages trade policy transformation that benefits people and the planet. She is co-founder of Fair World Project (FWP), an NGO based in the United States that advocates fair trade for organized small-scale farmers and labor justice for workers globally. She was the host of For A Better World, a podcast about fair trade and the farmer and worker-led movements that are fighting for equitable food and farming systems, and editor of the magazine with the same name for over 10 years. She helped to develop the Regenerative Organic Certification to help strengthen the social fairness pillar of the standard and served on the board of directors for 6 years of the Regenerative Organic Alliance. She is a co-founder and current board member of Grow Ahead, a crowdfunding platform that raises funds for farmer-led agroforestry projects to address the challenges of climate change in global south communities. She holds a Master’s in Public Affairs from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master’s Certification in Food Systems from the Berkeley Food Institute. She is now working on a book that will be published by Chelsea Green at the end of 2024 that shares tools for creating more justice in food supply chains to create a more hopeful future for us all. Her goal is to stop corporate extractive growth that is driving inequality and to participate in building a just economy for everyone.